Highline Canal trail

The weather was absolutely perfect this past Saturday, so we went for a bike ride. We started at the trailhead off County Line Rd and headed north for about 5 miles. On our last bike ride, Haden lost it after only 5-6miles, so we didn't want to push our luck. B0th he and Regan tolerated their bike trailer well, with the bribe of stopping at the park we had passed around mile one. Regan fell asleep on top of Haden, so the poor little guy was squished, but he didn't complain. We stopped for ice cream at Bonnie Brae's on the way home. Regan had to have the waffle cone covered in sprinkles and filled with pink ice cream, and Haden thoroughly enjoyed helping Clint with his own chocolate cone.

Children's Museum

Clint's sister, Karalee, came to visit for the weekend, so I took advantage of the help and we all went to the Children's Museum. I think Regan's favorite area was the grocery store. She loved pushing her shopping cart around, filling it up with food and then scanning each of her items. Haden had fun climbing on anything he could. I was grateful for the extra help. I'm not sure how I could have entertained both kids for so long...

My little climber

Haden can totally climb up the slide without any help.
He struggles a little when it comes to sitting down at the top, but has managed to even figure that out a few times. It took Regan until she was nearly two to figure this out... He will climb on absolutely anything! I'm rather dreading the first trip to the emergency room...

Chuck E Cheese

Regan's preschool held their first field trip to Chuck E Cheese. Haden and I got to go with her. She had so much fun. We rode every car that had pink on it, although she would quickly get bored and want off. She loved the big slide and might someday be able to earn her own tickets from skeeball, her balls would always roll right back to her. Haden was a good sport, but really wanted down so he could explore. They both loved the pizza and neither cared for Chuck E Cheese when he came out to greet them. It was fun watching her interact with her "friends." Regan has already been asking to return, but this time she wants to bring daddy!

Haden's on the move...

Haden is constantly on the move now, and he is fast. He is regularly demonstrating how un-baby-proof my house is. Needless to say, the ivy got moved up much higher...

Garden Bounty

We returned from Breckenridge to a garden in desperate need of picking. I picked A LOT of green beans and Clint and Regan snapped them for me while they watched football. Haden chewed on the ends of several beans and then carried them around in his mouth. That evening I canned several batches. There is such satisfaction in growing and preserving your own food!

Breckenridge

Okay, so I haven’t even been doing this for a month and I am already behind! Two weeks ago Clint had a conference in Breckenridge so the rest of us tagged along with him. We haven’t really had much of a chance to explore that part of Colorado yet. We had a lot of fun! The resort where we were staying was NOT designed for strollers. To get from the front door to our room, we had to take 3 different elevators. Regan refused to jump as the elevator stopped, but did a good job getting us to right floor every time. Regan got to paint her very own hot chocolate cup at “Ready, Paint, Fire.” She is a wonderful painter and her cup is beautiful. She and Haden both had a good time in the play section of Peek A Boo Toys. We were even able to make it out of the store without a single purchase! Although the hotel shuttle offered to take us anywhere we needed to go, Regan was a little apprehensive of the bus and insisted that we walk. She did very well, but eventually wound up sitting in the stroller with Haden. Haden loved it-all that curly hair just within his reach. Thank goodness Regan’s sweater had a hood to protect her curls from him! We got a lot of looks—I only saw one other stroller the entire time we were in Breckenridge and it was for a dog. We made it back to the hotel just before the skies opened up for the regular afternoon thunderstorm.

The next day we spent at the Children’s Museum where Regan befriended some kids from Florida. She loved playing with her new “friends” and was reluctant to leave. We stopped for lunch at the hotel’s restaurant. Apparently, one of Regan’s Strawberry Shortcake movies teaches appropriate manners for tea parties. She had the best time drinking water out of her fancy goblet and then blotting her lips afterwards. Her napkin was on her lap most of the time, except when she was rolling on the bench laughing at her own antics. We caused quite a spectacle, but it was a lot of fun…

Clint and I had planned on going on a hike when his conference was over, but the kids were fast asleep within five minutes of getting in the car. Since Haden had yelled most of the way to Breckenridge, we opted to let him sleep, skip our hike and enjoy the peace and quiet most of the way home.

September Snowball Fight

Attempting to make the best use of each Saturday we have left until the snow flies in the mountains, we headed for Mt. Evans. We hadn’t bothered to notice that the mountains were covered in snow until it was too late to turn around. We could only go as far as Summit Lake, but it was absolutely beautiful!

We started hiking on a snow covered trail when Regan yelled at us to stop! We thought something was wrong, but she only wanted to throw a snowball…Regan loved playing in the snow and has pretty good aim when it comes to throwing snowballs. She got Clint several times.

Haden was a good sport-he was definitely intrigued by the snowballs Clint fed him. The kids were so worn out they slept nearly all the way home!

Lost Creek Wilderness

The weekend after Labor Day I was able to get out and do a little backpacking with Jared Seeman and his bother Jon.

Although we were never truly “lost” in the Lost Creek Wilderness, we did end up doing a little back-tracking (you might want to ask Jared why the hike was 9 miles when the campsite was only 8 j/k ), and at times had to drop our packs to scout for the trail… But the magnificent views during the 2000 ft. + vertical drop into the narrow canyon were well worth the hike/scramble.

The climb out…a different story.

Maxwell Falls

Usually, when the term “falls” is used in connection with a high mountain location, you conjure up images of high volumes of water roaring or cascading down tens if not hundreds of feet to pools below. With this image in mind, last weekend we set off for Maxwell Falls, just outside of Aspen Park for our Labor Day adventure.

Although the directions we pulled off the web turned out to be inaccurate, we finally found the trailhead. You would think we’d have realized that if the directions on paved roads led us astray, we were in for trouble if we followed those same directions on the trail.

Well, we followed the trail anyway, and although the first section was relatively well marked and none too technical, the latter part became trailblazing and descending some pretty rough terrain. We survived with only minor scrapes on Regan’s leg. She is very tough!

Because we had to do our own trailblazing, we got turned around and asked someone “which way to the trailhead?” Following their directions, we then hiked several miles before realizing there were apparently two trailheads and we were heading in the wrong direction. Clint commented several times that the river was on the wrong side, but we assumed the person had given us accurate directions.

Although the “falls” ended up being a stream cascading over a few boulders, the kids had fun. Regan is becoming quite the avid hiker and Haden behaves very well in his backpack.

What have I started??

So I have finally given in and started a blog. Hopefully I will be able to keep it more up to date than my scrapbooks…

Regan turned three this summer and is all girl. She absolutely loves anything pink or “princess.” She must have come hard-wired. She has even been known to steal Haden’s toys because they had some little bit of pink on them. Regan began preschool last week and really seems to enjoy it. She has complained a few times about there being “too many kids there.” I can’t understand much else of what she says about it, but she always has a smile on her face when I come to get her. I hope it continues to be a positive experience for her. She is getting so grown up! The other day I called for her and she told me to hold on, she was texting Aunt Savannah! She has recently mastered protecting her toys by grabbing Haden’s ankles and pulling him away. She loves her little brother although has begun asking for a girl, because boys don’t play princesses. We love having Regan in our family!

Haden, at eight months, absolutely worships his big sister. She can make him laugh like no one else can. His main mode of transportation is the army crawl which he can do remarkably fast. He loves being in the kitchen and always makes a beeline to the open dishwasher, refrigerator, cabinet doors, or anything else he knows he is not supposed to be into. Haden loves being outside. He is always very well behaved when we go hiking and very tolerable of his sister’s antics in the bike trailer. We are so lucky to have him in our family!